On P. B. Axelrod’s PamphletThe People’s Duma and a Workers’ Congress

Written:Written In October 1905Published:First published in 1926 inLenin Miscellany V.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 9,

      pages417-419.Translated:The Late Abraham Fineberg and Julius KatzerTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Analysis of the Pamphlet[1]

Inconnection with P. B. Axelrod’s little pamphlet entitledThe People’s
Duma and a Workers’ Congress, the following should be noted:

Thisis the prototype ofallofIskra’sfollies — both
of a parallel parliament and a deal with the Constitutionalists Democrats.

Byand large, it is allplaying at parliamentarianism— in the
People’s Duma, and in arranging a deal with the Constitutionalists-Democrats
— in the parliamentary interpretation of a “Workers’
Congress” with illustrations “from Lassalle” (who was workingin conditions of a constitutionten yearsalterit had been
won by a revolution).

Wehave no end of ineptitudes here: “the first and primary
foundation” (page 13) “of serious negotiations and agreements
between our party and liberal organisations”... ofaction.What
kind?

{{ {
 Comrade P. B. Axelrod (is three years late! Can this
 be considered an agreement
 witha political party? It amounts to services
 rendered, technical in the first place, which were
 sufficient three years ago.

1)Material means...

2)premises...

3)arms“delivery”]

4)influence on public institutions, utilisation of connections

5)in the bureaucracy and the military, in the interests of open political action.

“School-levelpedagogy”: even if the convoking of aPeople’s
Dumaanda Workers’ Congressis a failure(page 12), “the agitation and organisational work done will not have
      been lost”.

Comparewith an insurrection—can organisational work in one“have been lost”?No. And agitation work? No, since an
insurrection is in progress, is a fact. As for thePeople’s
Duma—that is a comedy, a phantom, a hollow
phrase.

Asaccharine approach to the workers.

Page.7:“of a constituentpopularassembly, i.e., a really
’People’s Duma’.”

{Not “i.e.” and not “really"}

(page7) "’The duties’ of the People’s Duma

1&degr1) “to present to the State Duma the demand that a constituent
assembly be convened, and that it declare [?—and?] itself non-competent,
without the right to function.”

2) 
∼"∼!! ha-ha! and what about
   the “right” to convene
   a constituent assembly?

113) “to serve as the centre and spokesman of the will
of all democratic (page 7) sections of the population, and organiser of
defensive and offensive action by these sections against the government and its
allies.”

Comparethis nonsense with a provisional revolutionary government as the organ
of insurrection.

Aspate of meaningless words, and the reality of revolution.

 The difficulty of an uprising=the difficulty of climbing Mt. Blanc.

 The difficulty of a “People’s Duma” under the
 autocracy=“the difficulty” of flying through the air on to the
 top of Mt. Blanc.

Noteshould be taken of confirmation of our Central Committee’s opinion, as
expressed in its leaflet, thatIskra’splan is a piece of invention
coming from abroad. Axelrod wants tobring round to his point of viewhis correspondent, who (a) (page 6) doubts whether the slogans of the People’s
Duma and a Workers’ Congress will win over the mass of the people; (b) (page 14)
has motivated the policy of an “active boycott” (page 15 and page 14in fine).

Axelrodconsiders the policy of an active boycott reactionary and utopian

— reaction?—aconference of
Social-Democrats+Osvobozhdeniyehave settled this question. A coalition with the Black
Hundreds?—fear ofMoskovskiye VedomostiandNovoye Vremya.

— utopia?Two “utopias”:insurrectionandplaying
at
parliamentarianism.

Whichof these isbeing effectedis shown by the general strike and
street fighting all over Russia.

Theutter jumble of ideas about a “deal”, an “agreement”
(page7)

“with
the
central
organisations
of
liberal
democracy”.

Completeinability to single outrevolutionarydemocracy and indicateconcreteslogans on apoliticalagreement with the latter. Axelrod’s
slogans are all of anOsvobozhdeniyenature.

Regardinga “workers’ congress”.

TheThird Congress: utilisation of open action so as to createpoints
d’appuifor theParty.[2]

(Clearand precise.)

WithP. B. Axelrod one cannot make out anything.

AnAll-Russia workers’ congresssans phrase(page 3)—or a

“phrase”?

Itwould be best to havetwo
congresses

1)a“General Congress”(page 4)

2)a“Social-Democratic congress”("of members of a
   General Congress

?||who share our programme, plus representatives of our Party organisations,
for a reform of the whole Party”. Page 4)

||The ridiculousness of a comparison with the Lassalle affair:

1) there was
already aconstitutionthen.

2) Then Lassalle
wasopenlyappealed to, and his appeal was anopenone.

3)
Then the formation of theAllgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Vereinwas a
pretext forabuseof “workers’ independent activity”againstthe Social-Democratic Workers’ Party.||

[1]Lenin’s pamphlet on this subject was not published.

[2]The reference is to the resolution written by Lenin and
adopted by the Third Congress of the Party. It was worded, “On
the Question
of Open Political Action by the R.S.D.L.P.” (see present edition, Vol. 8,
pp. 377-78).